


Below The Skin

by Ariss_Tenoh



Category: Coldfire Trilogy - C. S. Friedman
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-13
Updated: 2014-09-13
Packaged: 2018-02-17 05:28:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2298194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ariss_Tenoh/pseuds/Ariss_Tenoh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Damien regrets but he tries not to. This particular regret might be a sin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Below The Skin

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Nov 14th 2008.  
> For mariem_1 who requested: Damien/Gerald, shape-shifting. This is set after the epilogue.

_Damien_

 

The name haunted him. Day and night. In wakefulness and in sleep.

 

He needed to get away. Away from the inn, the small town, away from people. It was necessary to purge himself of this affliction.

 

_Damien_

 

The voice grew stronger with every step he took. It seemed he was right to trust his instincts and remove himself from all traces of civilization.

 

_Damien. Damien_

 

He stopped and made camp at a small clearing in the forest, waiting for night to fall.

 

**_Damien_ **

 

His body jerked, that wasn't a hallucination produced by his mind. Still half-asleep, he could see a figure slowly walking toward him. The fire in front of him was dying out. The air grew colder. It stopped a few steps from him. Blond hair falling into an aristocratic face set with grey eyes, impeccably dressed as always though no sword hung at its waist.

 

"Damien.. " The voice was one he'd longed to hear.

 

"Gerald," he replied, his tone curiously devoid of emotion.

 

It stepped closer. "I waited and waited. You didn't come for me."

 

"I'm sorry. There was some trouble with the church."

 

He allowed the man to come closer to him, allowed himself to feast his eyes on that yearned for visage before he surged to his feet and drew his sword. The man was fast, almost inhumanely so, but Damien had years of experience in this field. The sword with the flame motif hilt sank into the man's abdomen and Damien twisted it; his anger overwhelming him for a moment.

 

"How did you know?" The man snarled.

 

Damien put his entire body's weight behind his sword and pushed it down, cleaving the man's body into two.

 

"Because he'd never have called. He'd know I'd be there for him, _demon_ ," Damien said through gritted teeth. He pulled his sword out of the body with a sickening sound; the kind only a body with flesh and blood pouring from it could make.

 

"Damn you, hunter." The demon's body rippled, its body shedding the false skin of a human.

 

Damien cut off its head to silence it. He stared at his handiwork for a long moment then went to fetch a log from the fire. He tossed it at the body and the demon's corpse went up in flames. Something about its black blood made it burn faster and brighter than a human corpse.

 

His horse made a distressed sound and he went over to pet it; his heart aching with the memory of sleek black horses with crescent-shaped hooves. His new horse didn't leave the moon as its trail. Damien smiled wryly and petted the horse. He moved to gather his saddle and bags, ready to move again. The world may be free of the fae's influence to conjure new nightmares but there were still monsters and demons to attack unwary humans. He'd made it his business to find and kill every remaining one and it seemed the demons were becoming aware of him now.

 

Damien swung into his saddle. He nudged his horse and they went onwards, leaving the forest behind them. His greatest, and only, regret of the last two years was that the one monster he longed for would never return. Shame and self-pity warred constantly in his heart over thoughts of that particular demon....

 

~ End ~


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